Adobe Illustrator Week 4: Sub Battle Project

To learn and demonstrate an understanding of the use of drawing tools, layers and symbols in Adobe Illustrator.

Student-Friendly Learning Target:

I can use the drawing tools in Illustrator to produce a submarine battle image.

Video Link:

Review the video links in the Illustrator Week 1 and 3 lessons to refresh your memory on the use of the Shape tools, the Brush and Blob Brush tools and the Pen tool.

Topics Discussed:

Select Tool (Black Arrow)

Direct Select Tool (White Arrow)

Shape Tool

Line Tool

Brush Tool

Blob Brush Tool

Pen Tool

Anchor Points

Convert Anchor Point Tool

Pathfinder

Shape Builder Tool

Layers Palette

Symbols Palette

Arrange Documents

Assignment:

Create a new Illustrator Web landscape-oriented document with all the default settings and one artboard. Call it “YOUR NAME – Sub Battle”. Using the two-up Arrange Documents method we first learned in Photoshop (it works here, too), copy the yellow submarine you drew in the previous assignment to the new artboard. Then, using the tools and techniques demonstrated in the videos and discussed in class, draw an underwater battle scene that contains all of the following elements:

A Hero Sub (your original sub drawing)

Three “Bad Guy” subs (you may alter the original sub’s symbol to create these, but they must look different from the Hero!)

One Animal (any kind of undersea life: a fish, a starfish, a shark, a whale, a squirrel in a diving suit…)

One Vegetable (any kind of undersea plant: seaweed, kelp, coral (which is actually dead animal matter, but this is Graphic Design, not Marine Biology), a pineapple under the sea…)

One Mineral (any kind of underwater rock or rock formation: a boulder, a mountain, an undersea volcano, a mysterious cave, a stone Moai head statue…)

One Symbol Set, created using the Symbol Sprayer Tool. (spray some bubbles, or fish, or jellyfish?)

At least one gradient fill applied to a shape (gradient fills make lovely undersea backgrounds…)

All of the above mentioned elements must be hand-drawn (no professionally-drawn symbols). Use the Shape Tools with the Pathfinder palette and Shape Builder tool to draw your elements, and use the Live Paint Bucket tool to color them in! Each element must be converted to symbols and I would recommend you put each item on a separate named layer. Good luck and happy drawing!